Adonis, Attis, Osiris : studies in the history of oriental religion / by J.G. Frazer.
- James George Frazer
- Date:
- 1906
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Adonis, Attis, Osiris : studies in the history of oriental religion / by J.G. Frazer. Source: Wellcome Collection.
88/368 page 68
![The site and ruins of Olba. thickets of evergreens, among which the oleanders with their slim stalks, delicate taper leaves, and bunches of crimson blossom stand out conspicuous.1 The ruins of Olba, among the most extensive and remarkable in Asia Minor, were discovered in 1890 by Mr. J. Theodore Bent. But three years before another English traveller had caught a distant view of its battle¬ ments and towers outlined against the sky like a city of enchantment or dreams.2 Standing at a height of nearly six thousand feet above the sea, the upper town commands a free, though somewhat uniform, prospect for immense distances in all directions. The sea is just visible far away to the south. On these heights the winter is long and severe. Snow lies on the ground for months. No Greek would have chosen such a site for a city, so bleak and chill, so far from blue water; but it served well for a fastness of brigands. Deep gorges, one of them filled for miles with tombs, surround it on all sides, rendering fortification walls superfluous. But a great square tower, four stories high, rises conspicuous on the hill, forming a landmark and earning for this upper town the native name of Jebel Hissar, or the Mountain of the Castle. A Greek inscription cut carved on their towns see J. T. Bent, “ Cilician Symbols,” Classical Review, iv. (1890) pp. 321 sq. Among these crests are a club (the badge of Olba), a bunch of grapes, the caps of the Dioscuri, the three-legged symbol, etc. As to the cedars and shipbuilding timber of Cilicia in antiquity see Theophrastus, Historia Plantarum, iii. 2. 6, iv. 5. 5. The cedars and firs have now retreated to the higher slopes of the Taurus. Great destruction is wrought in the forests by the roving Yuruks with their flocks; for they light their fires under the trees, tap the firs for turpentine, bark the cedars for their huts and beehives, and lay bare whole tracts of country that the grass may grow for their sheep and goats. See J. T. Bent, in Proceedings of the R. Geogr. Society, N.S. xii. (1890 PP- 453-458- 2 D. G. Hogarth, A Wandering Scholar in the Levant, pp. 57 scl- 1 J. Theodore Bent, “Explorations in Cilicia Tracheia,” Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, N.S. xii. (1890) pp. 445? 45°-453 5 “A Journey in Cilicia Tracheia,” Journal of Hellenic Studies, xii. (1891) pp. 208, 210-212, 217-219; R. Heberdey und A. Wilhelm, “Reisen in Kilikien,” Denkschriften der kaiser. Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosoph. - historische Classe, xliv. (Vienna, 1896) No. vi. pp. 49, 70 ; D. G. Hogarth and J. A. R. Munro, “Modern and Ancient Roads in Eastern Asia Minor,” Royal Geographical Society, Supplementary Papers, vol. iii. part 5 (London, 1893)? PP- 653 sq. As to the Cilician pirates see Strabo, xiv. 5. 2, pp. 668 sq. ; Plutarch, Pompeius, 24; Appian, Bellum Mithridat. 92 sq. ; Dio Cas¬ sius, xxxvi. 20-24 [3-6], ed. L. Din- dorf; Cicero, De imperio Cn. Pompeii, 11 sq. ; Th. Mommsen, Roman His¬ tory (London, 1868), iii. 68-70, iv. 40-45, 118-120. As to the crests](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b31346510_0088.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
